A group of concerned residents in Livermore stepped in this week after stumbling upon a shocking scene: seventeen puppies abandoned in a creek bed behind a local Walmart parking lot, left to fend for themselves with no sign of an owner anywhere nearby.
A local animal rescuer, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Breann, said she received an urgent call on Wednesday from a passerby who had spotted the litter huddled near the creek. By the time help reached the scene, tragedy had already struck — one puppy had been struck and killed by a passing vehicle before rescuers could intervene.
Determined not to lose another, Breann rushed to the location with a friend to help round up the remaining sixteen puppies before more harm could come to them.
“They had big, wormy bellies, and it really broke my heart because you could tell they were skinny and they were just bloat[ed] for the most part,” Breann said, describing the animals’ condition.
Corralling more than a dozen frightened puppies proved to be an exhausting task. “It’s definitely a lot of puppies all at once, it kind of felt like it was never gonna end,” she recalled. “When we were putting one by one into the truck, I was like, ‘And there’s more!'”
Breann said the abandonment didn’t come as a surprise to her, noting that she has witnessed a rising number of similar cases across the Tri-Valley region — a trend she links to the increasing cost of spaying and neutering pets.
The sixteen surviving puppies were transported to East Bay SPCA, the organization contracted by the city to handle stray, injured, and abandoned animals within Livermore. Six of the puppies were taken to the group’s Dublin facility, while the remaining ten were brought to its Oakland location.
“It’s no small feat,” said Jes Cytron, Vice President of Operations at East Bay SPCA, acknowledging the scale of the rescue effort.
Despite the ordeal, Cytron said the puppies — believed to be border collie mixes around nine to ten weeks old, likely from two separate litters — have been settling into shelter life without major issues.
Cytron pointed to a broader issue behind such cases: “People are really lacking the resources they need to take care of accidental or unwanted litters, often times they may panic, they may not know we’re here to take in those animals.”
Officials say the puppies are expected to be cleared for adoption within about a week. Those interested in giving one of the rescued puppies a home are encouraged to keep an eye on East Bay SPCA’s official listings for updates once the animals are ready.